Indiana carries out first execution in 15 years as man convicted of quadruple homicide executed

MICHIGAN, Ind. (AP) — An Indiana man convicted of killing four people decades ago, including his brother and sister’s fiancé, was executed Wednesday for the first time in the state in 15 years execution.

Joseph Corcoran, 49, was pronounced dead at 12:44 a.m. Central Time at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City, Indiana, the Indiana Department of Corrections said in a statement. Cochran was scheduled to be executed with the powerful sedative pentobarbital, but the state agency’s statement did not mention the drug. Cochran’s execution was the 24th in the United States this year.

He was charged in the July 1997 shooting deaths of his brother James Corcoran, 30, his sister’s fiancé Robert Scott Turner, 32, and two other men (Timothy G. Bricker, 30, and Douglas A. Stillwell) were convicted.

Before Corcoran shot the four victims, he was under intense stress because his sister was about to marry Turner and he would have to move out of the Fort Wayne, Indiana, home he shared with his siblings, according to court records. .

While in prison for the slayings, Corcoran reportedly bragged about shooting his parents to death in 1992 in Steuben County, northern Indiana. He was accused of the killing but acquitted.

Last summer, Gov. Eric Holcomb announced plans to resume state executions after a yearlong hiatus due to a shortage of lethal injection drugs.

The state has provided limited details about the execution and does not allow media witnesses under state law. However, Cochran chose a reporter from the Indiana Capital Register as one of his witnesses, according to Indiana Politics.

Indiana and Wyoming are the only two states that do not allow members of the media to witness state executions, according to a recent report from the Death Penalty Information Center.

Cochran’s attorneys have defended his death penalty for years, saying he suffered from severe mental illness that affected his understanding and decision-making abilities. This month, his attorneys asked the Indiana Supreme Court to halt his execution, but the request was denied.

Corcoran exhausted federal appeals in 2016. disease. The court declined to intervene on Friday, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit did the same on Tuesday.

Cochran’s lawyers then asked the U.S. Supreme Court to issue an emergency order halting his execution, but the high court late Tuesday rejected their request for a stay, ending Cochran’s options before the court.

Defense attorney Larry Kemp said he was disappointed with the high court’s ruling, adding that Cochran’s mental health issues had not been properly assessed.

“There was never a hearing to determine whether he was eligible for execution,” Kump said in a statement to The Associated Press. “It is an absolute failure of the rule of law if the law and due process are not followed.”

Cochran’s only remaining hope became Holcomb, who could have commuted Cochran’s death sentence. But the commutation never came and the execution continued as planned.

At midnight, a group of anti-death penalty activists began singing “Amazing Grace.”

Holcomb’s office released a statement early Wednesday following Corcoran’s execution.

“Joseph Corcoran’s case has been heard repeatedly over the past 25 years, seven times by the Indiana Supreme Court and three times by the U.S. Supreme Court, most recently tonight,” Holcomb said in a statement. His conviction was never overturned and was carried out in accordance with court orders.

The last execution in Indiana was in 2009, when Matthew Wrinkles was executed for the 1994 slayings of his wife, her brother and sister-in-law. Initiated and implemented by federal officials in 1994.

State officials said they were unable to proceed with the execution because the drug combination used for lethal injections was no longer available.

There have been nationwide shortages for years as pharmaceutical companies refused to sell their products for this purpose. That’s prompted states, including Indiana, to turn to compounding pharmacies that manufacture medications specifically for customers. Some people use more readily available drugs, such as the sedatives pentobarbital or midazolam, both of which critics say can cause severe pain.

Religious groups, disability rights advocates and others opposed his execution. About a dozen people, some holding candles, held a prayer vigil outside the prison Tuesday night.

“We can build a society without giving government authorities the right to execute their own citizens,” said Bishop Robert McClory of the Diocese of Gary, who led the prayer.

Other opponents of the death penalty also demonstrated outside the prison on Tuesday night, some holding signs that read “Death penalty is not the solution” and “Remember the victims, but no more killings.”

“This execution is unnecessary and does no good. It’s all a show,” said Abraham Borowitz, director of Death Penalty Action, a group that protests every execution in the United States.

Cochran “had Ben & Jerry’s ice cream for his last meal,” prison officials said in a brief statement Tuesday night.

Cochran said goodbye to relatives Tuesday night, including his wife, Tashina Cochran, who told reporters outside the prison that they discussed their faith and memories, including going to high school together. She once again asked the governor of Indiana to commute her husband’s death sentence.

Tahina Corcoran said her husband was “mentally disturbed” and she believed he didn’t fully understand what was happening to him.

“He was shocked. He didn’t understand,” she said.

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Callahan reported from Indianapolis.